Song Anatomy ● 'White Room' - Cream
CREAM / L–R: Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce and Eric Clapton. / General Artists Corporation - Atco Records Publicity Photo 1967
Song Anatomy ● 'White Room' - Cream
The Song● White Room
Writers● Jack Bruce and Pete Brown
Producer● Felix Pappalardi
Recorded● August 1967 at IBC Studios, London and February 1968 at Atlantic Studios, New York
Released● March 1969
Players●
:: Eric Clapton - guitars, vocals
:: Jack Bruce - bass, harmonica, vocals
:: Ginger Baker - drums, percussion, vocals
:: Felix Pappalardi - violas
Album● Wheels Of Fire (Atco, 1968)
Wheels of Fire ● Cream
Wheels of Fire is the third album from Cream. It was released in the US in June 1968 as a two-disc vinyl LP, with one disc recorded in the studio and the other recorded live. It was released in the UK on August 9, 1968. It reached number three in the United Kingdom and number one in the United States, Canada, and Australia, becoming the world's first platinum-selling double album.
The song "White Room" opens Wheels Of Fire, a two-record set that's comprised of one album of studio recordings and another set of songs recorded live at the Fillmore West in San Francisco. Eric Clapton's wah-wah solo at the end of the song is considered one of the most exciting guitar pieces in rock history. It hit Number Three on the Billboard chart.
Wheels Of Fire was also released as a single album, with studio songs only. It hit Number Seven on the Billboard chart.
By the time of its release, Cream had announced its decision to split up and began a 15-show farewell tour of the U.S., followed by two sold-out farewell concerts at London's Royal Albert Hall.
According to Clapton, "Cream was originally formed as a blues trio - like Buddy Guy with a rhythm section. We were going to play small clubs... We didn't want to be big in any way. We had gigs when you could have mistaken us for (Jimi) Hendrix, it was that good, but the bad nights were awful."
A trio of virtuosos, Cream not only paved the way for such heavy rock bands as Led Zeppelin, the group also inspired many jazz-fusion artists to mix complex melodic structures with rock power.
"I hit it off with Jack (Bruce) really well," Clapton says of his first time working with the legendary bassist, when both anchored John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. "Then he (Bruce) left to go with Manfred Mann and (Mayall) got John McVie back. I decided that playing with Jack was more exciting. There was something creative there. Most of what we were doing with Mayall... l was imitating records we'd got, but Jack had something else. He had no reverence for what we were doing and was composing new parts as he went along. I had never heard that before and it took me someplace else."
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